Arkansas produces more rice than any other state, and a new USDA grant will help farmers explore ways to transition the industry to organic.
The US Department of Agriculture has offered the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture a $500,000 grant to study what it would take to grow organic rice in the United States.
Only a few of the country’s 100 organic rice growers are situated in Arkansas, according to Alvaro Durand-Morat, an assistant professor of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness at the University. The lack of knowledge about how the organic rice market works is one obstacle to admission.
“It is such a small market that the fact that we do not find much public information may be a result of the structure of the market,” Durand-Morat explained. “And therefore, our project is trying to overcome that, and make information available to everybody that might be considering it as an opportunity in the future.”
He pointed out that, despite exporting about half of its rice harvest each year, the United States is a net importer of organic rice.
A multi-state outreach campaign to communicate the research findings with people around the country is also included in the USDA grant. Durand-Morat sees the findings as an opportunity for rice farmers in Arkansas and elsewhere to grow their businesses.
Durand-Morat commented, “We know that organic rice sells at a very high premium.” “There is a large pool of rice farmers that, if the conditions are right — if the market information is available, and they can actually plan ahead — I think there’s a great potential for many farmers in Arkansas to eventually embrace organic”
The USDA grant is a collaboration between the institution, the Agriculture Organisation The Organic Center, and the University of California Cooperative Extension.
NASA also granted the University of Arkansas a $1 million grant this summer to research greenhouse gases and rice agriculture. Rice production is thought to be responsible for 8% of worldwide methane emissions.
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